Mad King Garvin
'The Madness of King Garvin of the House of Trejan, High King of the Kels. ' In the year of the Gizadi Record, 5407, The elves of Sylvanar, in an attempt to open up diplomacy with the humans, agreed to open an embassy within the city of Kel Arn. To commemorate the opening of their embassy they planted a life-seed, a sapling of one of their infamous world-trees. For nearly fifty years the elves were able to meet many humans and introduce them to the ways of their goddess, Sylvalune and the inherent balance of their druid-based philosophy. As Kel Arn was the capital of the Kels, the clerics of Arn tolerated the 'new god' within their city as there weren't that many followers of elf-kind. One of the practices of the followers of Sylvalune was their prayers to the growing world tree. On occasion, the world tree would bear a rare fruit - Amber Fruit. It was later distilled into a weakly potent drink, similar to wine, that the elves would share with the other followers of Sylvalune. One side effect of the wine is its curative properties. The wine would remove some of the signs of aging, cure maladies and the like. When the King of Kel Arn heard of such a beverage, he inquired and the leaders of the Elven embassy made a gift of some of the wine from the last fruit that was borne. The king, Garvin, greedily consumed the wine to cure some of the various maladies that afflicted him. The elves realized the greed within the king and did not make a second gift of the wine but the king 'requested' to drink a toast to the elven leaders of the embassy on the anniversary of the planting of their life-seed. After the birth of his third and final child, Krixla, Garvin's wife, Yestyl, took ill and died. The High Clerist of the Church of Arn was unable to call upon the god of the Sun to cure the wife of the king - though no one knew why. The Mother superior of the temple of Amara was called but it was too late. The fever took her and the king was distraught - nearly spiteful of the Church of Arn for not saving his wife. The Summer of 5455 GR Five years later, Korvic's oldest son, Daris, who was nearing his seventeenth birthday, took sick with a wasting disease similar to the illness his mother died from. Once again the king called for the High Clerist of the Church of Arn to cure his son but when the priest attempted to channel positive divine energy through himself and to the boy - great sores opened on Daris' body. The boy screamed out in pain and the King rushed to knock the High Clerist away. The king's adviser, a ruthless and political man named Lord Taraskan, convinced the King that the High Clerist was conspiring with the other leaders of the Church of Arn to kill the boy and claim the throne for themselves. The King struck the old priest down before either of the two acolytes could even yell out in surprise. He then called for the High Priestess of Amara to come and heal his son and heir to the throne. She came and attempted to heal but again, as soon as she tried to channel positive, divine energy into the child his skin burst forth with blemishes and he screamed in pain. Once again, Lord Taraskan convinced the king that the High Priestess was also attempting to kill the King's son and she too was struck down. At his advisor's urging, the King called for the Speaker of the Temple of Gorm - the last of the three great religions within Kel Arn. The dwarven cleric of the Forgemaster came to the king and heard that the young prince was ill and needed healing. Word reached the cleric that the king was going mad and had already killed the High Clerics of Arn and Amara and the old dwarf prepared himself for what was to come. He took one look at the boy and immediately knew what he had been hearing from his god. The boy had been infected with more than a fever - he was slowly being turned into one of the Undead. Only the undead and those who control them, are injured by positive, divine energies. The question for the dwarven cleric was finding the source. When he met the king's new advisor, Lord Taraskan, there was no doubt. The dwarf attempted to convince the king of the evil before his eyes but the king saw only the fear that had been spawned in his heart by the servant of Rhulic. Anyone who was unwilling or unable to cure his son would be put to the sword. With one stroke he would dispatch the dwarf for failing to follow the orders of his king. He would die for his disloyalty like the others. The dwarf had other intentions. With one massive blow from his hammer, he shook the ground of the keep and knocked the charging King to the ground. As Lord Taraskan charged from the opposite corner of the room, the Dwarven cleric caught him with an up-swing of his mighty hammer and knocked him back into the corner. The three continued to fight for long enough that the King's guard heard the noise and came in to investigate. The dwarf managed to snap the advisor's neck with one, well-placed swing of his hammer but was quickly surrounded by the guard. The king ordered him arrested and he would be excuted for treason in the morning. That night the King's mind raced for a solution to his son's condition. With the advisor gone his mind spun in wild and uncontrollable rage until he rememberd the healing properties of the elven fruit. If the wine that came from the fruit could cure so much - the fruit itself could heal his son. He would have that fruit. He would take it from the Elves even if they refused him - their rightful king. He knew that the elves would be at prayer come dawn so he set his plan into motion. While the king's guards assembled for a raid on the Elven embassy, the Dwarven priest was able to speak with some of the guards who were watching over him. He managed to get a message out to the Dwarven embassy in the city under the pretense that it was a message to his wife. As the sun rose across the city, the elves were gathered in prayer around their world tree and the king and his guard marched from different directions so as not to alarm the guards outside their embassy. Within moments, the King and his guards had invaded the elven embassy and held the near twenty elves at spear-point. He searched the tree for signs of fruit and found none. He commanded that the elves provide him with a piece of the Amber fruit but they informed him that they could not 'command' the tree to bear fruit. The fruit came when the tree felt it was the right time. The king theatened to kill several of the elves if they would not pray to the tree for fruit. The elves tried to explain that it was not the way of the World Tree but when then the King snapped. He grabbed a long-handled battle axe from one of the guards and charged the tree with enough anger and fury to chop it down in only three blows. At the first blow, the elves counter-attacked. Though at spear point and not all of them were combatants, all of them demonstrated exactly how different the Elves were from Man. Of the fifty king's guards nearly thirty of them were killed or injured by the time the last, unarmed elf fell. The king exited the elven embassy and ordered that the doors to be sealed and the city gates shut until the few remaining elves hunted down. As the gates were being shut, the King was informed that the great western gate of the city could not be closed due to the Dwarven 'procession'. The dwarves, all of them in the entire city, were marching through the city in a large, armored column and the gates could not be closed. Within the center of the column was the dwarven women and children as they simply marched out of the city. Category:Gizadi Sixth Age Category:History/Human Category:History/Kels